Dear Child of God,
Let us start with the below scripture: Matthew 6v25.
”Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”
In this first passage of scripture, Jesus is telling us that when we lean on our own understanding instead of His, we are self-inducing unnecessary worries and struggles on ourselves. He promises (and Jesus doesn’t break a promise) that if we lean on God by putting Him first, everything else will be taken care of for us.
This is easy enough to accept and believe when we are not in dire need of our basic necessities. When we are not concerned about how we are going to pay for our rent, or how we are going to put food on the table or how we are going to pay for our bills at the end of each month.
When we know there is no source of income or enough income coming in at month end to survive, how do we maintain the faith in Jesus’ promise in Matthew 6v25?
Let us look to the below scripture: Matthew 7v9.
”What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him.“
In these verses Jesus is essentially saying,
“Don’t you trust God? Don’t you know that he is the ‘dad of all dads’?”
This now brings me to the following scripture: Proverbs 3v5.
”Lean not on your own understanding”.
Before you expect a concrete answer in how not to lean on your own understanding. There isn’t one. There isn’t a “how”, it just “is”. You will only come to an understanding that you will not receive the answers you are looking for, you‘ll then surrender to not knowing the answers and you’ll rely on your faith that God knows best even in the circumstances that make NO sense to you at all.
Coming into understanding:
WE WILL NOT understand God’s way, reasons, actions or allowances.
Should God provide us with an understanding of why He does what He does in each of our lives and chooses to reveal Himself, His ways and His reasoning's to us, we are to acknowledge that we are abundantly blessed and that His revelation to us is purposeful and to be used to spread His Word and grow His Kingdom.
However, to expect that He will share His reasoning with us is an expectation we are NOT to have.
”You do not understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.” John 13v7
”Someday” in this verse is broad spectrum and can not be believed to be within our lifetime.
When we put all these anxieties, hardships, circumstances, sufferings and basic needs for survival together and we start to analyze them by trying to navigate our own way through them with thoughts of: “how are we going to manage, how are we going to accept these situations, how are we going to survive, how could this happen to me and worst, how could God allow this to happen to me”, we begin to become overwhelmed, depressed, worried, stressed, desolate and filled with anguish and severe despair.
These are the emotions God our Father doesn’t want us to feel. These are the emotions God our Father wants to save us from.
This is why He tells us:
”You do not understand now what I am doing, but someday you will.” John 13v7
God knows that if we try to understand everything that happens to us or if we try to understand God's way, reasons or His allowances for our life it will only leave us desolate and filled with despair.
If we were gifted with the mental capacity and emotional ability to understand why God does what He does, we would not be required to walk by faith and not by sight.
Choosing to surrender:
In the bible it tells us clearly in 2 Corinthians 5v7: “For we live by faith, not by sight.”
We are not to understand why God does what He does or why He allows what He allows to happen to us, we are only to have faith that God’s way is better despite us not understanding how it is better.
God is all knowing and with His reasons; reasons that only “someday” (not in this lifetime) we will understand.
God doesn’t want us to carry the burden that comes with trying to understand His way because it will disturb our peace and that discontentment that arises within our heart from our peace being disturbed will only lead us to sin.
God has told us that we will not understand what He is doing. He tells us this in the Bible.
Through believing in His word and by our faith we choose to believe God‘s promises and living word in the Bible over how we feel about our personal circumstances. We surrender.
Let us be reminded that God promises that He will always provide for His people.
Now this does not mean we receive what we want, when we want it and how we want it. We have to surrender to the will of God. (Over our own will.)
We need to reside ourselves to the fact that God’s will for us and our circumstances is HIS WILL and not ours and what arises as a challenge for us allows God the opportunity to glorify himself in our weakness. By surrendering to His will, we allow our living God to showcase His supernatural strength and power.
We must make space in our lives for His miraculous work. It is in our weakness where we see the true glory, power and miraculous hand of our God.
We only need to let go of trying to understand and surrender in our weakness and lean on God’s word.
You CAN NOT base your faith on your temporary emotions. You can not base your faith on how you feel. You have to base your faith on God’s word!
When God tells us in the bible that He will provide what we need. When God promises His forgiveness, His mercy, His love, His comfort, His grace and more. He will honor His promises because He does not lie. God is pure, eternal love, He CAN NOT LIE.
It is based on His promises that we surrender. Surrendering to God with NO understanding of our circumstances or how we are going to rectify, change or improve our circumstances, is the safest, most rewarding, most comfortable and most peaceful place we can surrender to because In His word He promises to intervene and provide for us.
We need only to believe His promise rather than how we feel about it. Our emotions fluctuate, what we believe fluctuates, our faith fluctuates, but God’s promise remains steadfast and eternal. When He says He tells us He will provide for us - He will - we need only to believe.
Surrendering to our living God; our eternal Father who promises to always provide what we need is a gift to us and not a burden. We only need to choose to believe Him and His promises.
Coming into acceptance by faith:
It is by faith and petition in prayer that we must pray to God for acceptance of the things we may not understand and for protection from the discontent that may arise in our hearts and minds by not understanding the things we want to, but don’t.
By trying to understand the things we don’t we will only be led into heartbreak, confusion, frustration, discontent, loathing, hatred, resentment and despair. We will be led into a very dark and consuming void within ourselves that can entrap us for a lifetime.
So, Why does God not want us to lean on our own understanding?
Because it robs us of the peace and love within our hearts for years. (Potentially for the remainder of our lives). Depending on our individual experiences and circumstances.
He does not want us to be robbed of our peace and love within our hearts.
He does not want us to be consumed with the frustrations and anxieties of trying to understand what we are told we will not understand.
He does not want us to lean on our own understanding because our understanding is flawed and ever-changing.
But He is NOT. HE is constant, HE is love, He is our Father and our living and ONLY God.
When He makes us promises we only need to surrender our will, our emotions, our lack of understanding and hold steadfast to His glorious, miraculous love and favor, and choose with our whole heart to believe Him and let Him intervene and provide for us , in His way.
Strengthen your faith and LET God intervene and provide for you in His way, His time and according to His will.
So, How do we not lean on our own understanding?
There isn’t a “how”, it just “is”.
You need to accept that you will not understand, you need to meditate on God‘s word and you have to rely on God’s word with all your faith and might. Believe in His promises, and then give God the space in your life to bring His promises to fruition.
Remember that He is the dad of all dad’s, but grandiosely better than any dad you can ever imagine. He will not leave you desolate, neglected or alone.
Let me leave you with a reminder of: Psalms 91v1-16.
I pray this "Safety of biding in the presence of God" (Psalm 91) over you today child of God.
God bless you.